Warriors battle Wolverines and Wildcats

Warrior girls open track and field season with one-point loss to Westview

Fallbrook High School’s girls track and field team opened its 2013 season March 7 at Westview with a 66-65 loss to the Wolverines.

“Very close meet,” said Fallbrook head coach Troy Hamlin. “The girls had an extremely good showing on the track. All in all it came down to a point here and there and we ended up coming up one point short.”

The scoring system for high school track and field dual meets awards a school five points for first place, three points for second, and one point for third for the 14 individual events. Five points are awarded to the winner of each of the two relay races while the second-place team does not receive any points.

“The girls were very competitive. We should have won that meet, but you can’t look at it that way,” Hamlin said.

The final running event is the 4x400 relay; Westview’s time of 4:29 earned five points against the Warriors, who posted a time of 4:32. The final field event is the triple jump, and Westview earned that event’s only five points as the Wolverines had the only triple jumper at the dual meet. “We’ve got to develop some triple jumpers,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin had planned to use Kathryn Markham in the triple jump. Markham had cleared 4’2” in the high jump to give Fallbrook a third-place point, but she sprained her knee during the long jump. The Wolverines swept all nine long jump points, and Markham’s injury left the Warriors without a triple jumper. “If she had been able to triple jump we would have won the meet,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin notes, however, that an additional position in any other event also would have won the meet for Fallbrook. “You can’t say it’s because Kathryn didn’t jump. We needed to pick up a point somewhere,” he said. “We needed to win it somewhere else then.”

A high school track meet begins with the 4x100 relay. Fallbrook earned the five points with Sarah Grantham, Peyton Brittain, Jordan Danso, and Daijon Sumpter posting a time of 51.6 seconds. “Our 400 (4x100) relay team is very good this year,” Hamlin said. “I think it’s one of the best relay teams in the county.”

Brittain and Grantham also won two individual events apiece. Brittain had a time of 12.8 seconds in the 100-meter dash while Sumpter placed second in that race at 13.2 seconds. Brittain’s winning time in the 200-meter dash was 26.8 seconds while Sumpter was third with a 27.8-second performance.

Grantham’s winning times were 17.6 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and 50.4 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles.

Fallbrook also took the top two positions in the 400-meter race; Danica Hooper posted a time of 1:07.2 while Jessica Steinhoff ran the lap in 1:11.9.

“We dominated the sprints,” Hamlin said. “We did very well in the distances as well.”

Junior Rosanne Lopez won the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:41.3 while freshman Hannah Niebel had a second-place time of 5:41.7 in her first-ever race. “She’s a very talented track runner,” Hamlin said of Niebel.

Niebel would win a race before the day ended, posting a time of 12:17 in the 3,200-meter event. Haley McCaffrey was third in that race with a time of 12:34.

Although the top two 800-meter race finishers were Westview runners, Lopez was third at 2:31.4.

Fallbrook’s only first-place mark in a field event was the 8’0” sophomore Mikala Tidd cleared in the pole vault during her first track and field meet. Amanda Williams was second in the shot put at 27’9” and third in the discus at 75’5” while unrelated Heather Williams placed second in the discus with a throw of 76’2”.

“It’s a pretty talented team,” Hamlin said. “I like what I’m seeing from them.”

Westview dominates Warrior boys in track and field opener

Last year six different Fallbrook High School boys track and field athletes qualified for the CIF San Diego Section preliminaries. Five of those were seniors in 2012, including eventual San Diego Section triple jump champion Chris Bernal.

Bernal also qualified for the CIF preliminaries in the long jump and the 100-meter dash. Shot put thrower Jeremiah Kolone, distance runner Enrique Rivera, and pole vaulters Joe Curran and Alan Ransbury also qualified for last year’s CIF meet as seniors.

“We’ve got some holes,” said Fallbrook head coach Marco Arias. “We’re rebuilding.”

The Warriors opened their 2013 season March 7 at Westview. The Wolverines won by a 93-42 score while taking first place in 13 of the 16 events.

Two of Fallbrook’s first-place finishes were achieved by junior Tervino Cordova. His time of 11.3 seconds won the 100-meter dash, and his time of 23.7 seconds in the 200-meter dash edged out Warrior senior James Pease, who had an identical time.

“Extremely happy with the way Tervino’s worked lately,” Arias said. “He made a dedication to himself and to the team and to the program.”

Pease also took third place in the 400-meter race with a time of 54.7 seconds.

Fallbrook’s other first-place mark was achieved by Hayden Haldi, a junior who is in his first year with the track and field program. Haldi had a winning triple jump distance of 38’7”.

“He’s just a pleasant surprise,” Arias said of Haldi. “He’s just come onto the scene. Every event we put him at, he’s just gone straight to the top.”

Haldi also threw the discus against Westview and had the third-place distance of 108’2”. He also runs relays for the Warriors.

“I definitely see him along the lines of being a Chris Bernal,” Arias said. “He could be something special.”

Bernal’s first varsity track and field meet was as a sophomore in 2010. His first triple jump distance was 37’6”.

The lone returning Fallbrook track and field athlete who qualified for last year’s CIF preliminaries is current senior Connor Froboese. In the meet against Westview Froboese posted a second-place time of 4:40.3 in the 1,600-meter race and a third-place time of 2:08.5 in the 800-meter run. Froboese’s teammate, senior Alex Mendoza, had a time of 2:07.5 to take second in the 800-meter event. Junior Rene Hernandez was third in the 3,200-meter race at 10:29.0.

Fallbrook’s new athletes include sophomore transfer Colyn Todd who finished second in both hurdles races at Westview. He posted times of 16.7 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and 43.5 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles.

Senior Trevi Cao also made his track and field debut against Westview and placed third in the long jump with a distance of 18’2”. Blake Bonaguro was second in the shot put at 41’6” and Elijah Zepeda cleared 10’6” to take third in the pole vault.